Topic: A lump or a tick??

[kenkew]

Whoops! Sorry, jojo.

[Aeeeek]

well thanks everybody for all your advice etc.....tried to remove 'tick' with alcohol combined then with Vaseline treatment .....did not budge, so thought sod it lets take dog to vet , turns out reason it didn't budge is it was a lump/abcess/ horrid thing filled with bloody/yellow goo ( or was that the alcohol and vaseline soaked in??)...so vet has removed it to a degree but need to go back next week to check the said area ... and to see if there is anymore...yuukkkkkk!!!!!!!!
but you see I am still wondering was it a really hardcore tic and the blood/yellow goo stuff was it's insides?????

anyways thanks everyone

[Paulines7]

Aeeeek, the vet would have said had it been a tick.  Where the head goes in to the skin, you can normally see part of the head and the legs.  On the ones that I have had on my dogs and cats, the head and legs have always been black. 

My dog Meggie, a Springer Spaniel, also had a lump about a year ago but it turned out to be a cyst.  The vet said to leave it unless it got much bigger, but it eventually went away.  I believe some dog breeds are more susceptable to having these lumps than others.

Anyway, I am pleased that you have found out what it is and hope it has cleared up by next week when your dog is due to go back to the vet.   :)

[kenkew]

Looking at your first post where you said it 'filled' and grew overnight....well, sounds a very strange abscess to me. I don't doubt your vet for a moment but we have had some vet stories on here that shows some vets work for money and not the welfare of the animal. Anyway, at least you have the 'problem' under view. Good luck.

[Heldi]

I've had a dog grow a sticky girl thingy lumpy spotty type thing. It was caused by a grass seed getting into the skin. Something you wouldn't notice until you see or feel a lump.

[teresa]

My pregnant dog years ago was limping, so had a look a puss filled boil between her claws,
so with needle opended it up yuck the muck few out to the glass door and a ear of wild corn had got in.
 But with a good wash of salt water it healed up fine.
Nice when animals have faith in you to fix them she was a brave little soilder and got a tit bit hee hee.

[Taraven]

Well gang, after reading this thread and almost choking on my cuppa with laughing at Kenkew and Heldi, i would just like to add my 5 pen'orth, if I may.
I used to have a beautiful Staffie and she developed a small lump on her back.  The vet told me it might have been caused by a bite from a cat flea (apparently that can happen sometimes) and as it wasn't growing he decided to leave it and we'd keep a close eye on it in case it got bigger.  Then she got what we honestly thought at first was a tic between her toes.  It was grey and looked exactly like a tic, but we couldn't remove it.  We did all the things that we'd been told would make the tic drop off without being forcibly removed, but nothing worked and every time we went to remove it my dog yelped, so as it was almost time for her to have her 'booster injections' we decided to let the vet take a look at it.
To cut a long story short...it turned out to be cancer.  The lump on her back was also a slow growing cancerous growth.  What had appeared to be a small lump was, in fact, a horrible growth under the skin.  The lump on her toe was a nasty type of cancer that was growing very quickly and the vet had no option but to operate to remove her toe (he also cut out the growth from her back).
She was 9 at the time, 3 years later we had to have her put to sleep when she developed cancer in her urinary tract.
So if you're unsure of any lumps on your dogs or cats, please do get the vet to take a look.  Not wanting to cause any alarm because it seldom happens, but I'm so pleased that we took my dog to the vet when we did.

Taraven

[John_H]

I just thought I would send you a lovely holiday picture of my chums and I removing tics in the highlands. They are no big deal right out in the wilds but you get quite a lot where there is a sizable deer population..

Since then I have learned firstly not to dress up like the famouse five when hill walking and secondly to carry a small bottle of surgical spirit and some cotton buds, you dab the tick until it lets go, the head comes out clean and the surgical spirit is an extra protection against infection.

Lymes is a small risk with tics, so its better to aviod them if at all possible (but I do agree that there are a lot of small risks in life and if you avoided them all then the world would be a very dull place).

[Heldi]

Urgh John I'm grossed out!

I remember sitting in my living room one night. I felt something tickling on my collar bone and moving down my chest. I looked down and was absolutely horrified to see a tick making its way across me! I couldn't just flick it so I had to calmly get a tissue and remove it. My hair was standing on end...I'm not good with ticks!  I have always assumed it didn't care for my perfume and that is why it hadn't sunk it's teeth in.  Oooh it still makes me shudder!

[Margaret]

Not a "tick" story but equally gross and rather embarassing actually.........

Years ago when i had my previous dog,and when i lived in a flat with her for a short time before i got a house and garden,i used to give her marrowbones to chew.Normally i would buy them cooked but occasionally she would have them raw.When they got past their best i would always throw them out.

Somehow one had escaped my eye and ended up under the settee.It only came to light when i looked down one day and saw an army of maggots wriggling out from under the sofa.............yes i had "bred" them in the forgotten bone.

I still shudder now just thinking about it.And i do do my housework regularly,honest,but i had had a very bad back and hadn't moved it out to hoover underneath........

As you might guess,she never saw another bone for a long time afterwards...........